The goal of this project is to understand basic mechanisms of cell recognition of bacterial product LPS via the interactions of LPS, its soluble binding protein and its membrane receptor CD14. This is the basic research counterpart of the sepsis studies. It involves spectroscopic and cytometric analysis of the complexes of LPS with its binding protein and has led a general new way of examining macromolecular assmblies in liposomes (Wistrom et al, Biophys. J, 1996). A second manuscript detailing a theoretical analysis of macromolecular assembly in micelles is in preparation (Jones et al, 1996)